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News Talk has gone national but the booze slot
on Friday 20th October 2006 on the Moncrieff show went one
better and went international! Master of Wine Martin Moran discussed shopping
for wine in France. There are huge savings to be made and fares, outside of the
summer peak, are very attractive. You can easily save the cost of travel by
buying a few cases and you’ll have a fun few days out.
The first wine that we tasted on the show was Drappier
Carte d’Or Champagne NV at €29.99 from Supervalu. It’s an excellent
Champagne and better than many of the big brands in my opinion. It’s not a
name many will know but it has a very good reputation amongst those who know it
within the wine trade.
However, if you had gone to France you could
expect to buy this fizz for about €20 per bottle. In August I visited wine
shops and supermarkets the ports of Calais and Cherbourg. Savings on Champagne
average about €10-11 per bottle, e.g Moët et Chandon NV is about €25-26 in
France and €36-38 in Ireland. Savings on deluxe Champagnes appear even
greater. Tesco in Calais is currently
offering Bollinger NV for €28.92 per bottle. This is about €10 cheaper than
I saw anywhere else and compares with an Irish price of around €50+! Dom
Perignon can be bought for around €92-95 as against €125 here. Excise duty
is €4.10 per bottle in Ireland and almost zero in France.
Next wine we tasted on the show was a rosé
bought in Leclerc supermarket: Chantelauze 2005 from Les Vignerons des
Coteaux de L’Ardeche was a highly drinkable fruity dry style. The other
presenters were asked to guess what they might pay for it. Movie reviewer Esther
guessed €12, Sean guessed €8, and actual cost was €1.55! Haven’t seen
this bottle in Ireland but I’d guess it would cost €9-10 if available here.
Last wine was a Bordeaux Rouge from Lidl.
The identical wine costs €1.19 in France and €5.19 in Ireland. Excise duty
in France is less than a penny per bottle and VAT is 19.6%, so the ex taxes
price is about €0.99. In Ireland VAT is 21% and duty €2.05, so that means
the ex-tax price is about €2.23. Freight adds, being generous, maybe 20c per
bottle but essentially they earn at least a €1 extra per bottle sold in
Ireland. Ouch! No wonder Lidl love Ireland.
Savings on wines vary enormously. At the
channel port supermarkets you’ll find many of the big New World brands for
about €5-6, while they might cost €9-10 in Ireland.
The biggest bargains are the French wines sourced directly by the
supermarkets. There are plenty of very drinkable wines for €2-3, wines that
you might pay €8-9 for in Ireland. Sometimes, like our rosé choice they are
even cheaper. Fine wine lovers can expect to pay €8-9 for wines like Sancerre
instead of €15+.
Spirits lovers will find Gordons, Smirnoff or
Bacardi for about €11-12 per bottle and Jameson for about €14.50. Beer is
sometimes cheaper than water, if you buy a supermarket brand you may not have
heard of, while 50cl cans of big name brand like Fosters or Guinness are about
€1.
The law says that goods purchased for personal
use are free of any extra taxes when returning home and Irish Customs will
accept that the following maximums fits that bill unless you can prove you have
a reason for more: 90 litres of wine (up to 60 of which is sparkling), 10 litres
of spirits and 100 litres of beer. http://www.revenue.ie/leaflets/pn1878.pdf
gives full details.
So how do you get to France?
Irish Ferries goes from Rosslare to
Cherbourg about three times a week and has some great off peak offers. i.e.
about €257 for a car and two people (so double the allowance if your axles can
take it). They also sail to Roscoff from about Easter to late September, but
Cherbourg has more shops. Sailing time is about 18hrs.
If 18hrs at sea seems too much for you or time
is of the essence then sail across the Irish Sea and drive to one of the English
Channel ports. Returns from Rosslare to Pembroke for a car and two adults is
from as little as €228, €20 extra from Dublin to Holyhead or €40 extra on
the Swift service. Eurotunnel
will whisk you under the Channel to Calais (a surreal experience that my kids
and I loved) from just £44 return while Brittany
Ferries will take two of you and a car to Cherbourg, St. Malo or Caen from
the South Coast for just £65 on a day return. It’s possible in theory to get
from Dublin Port to Calais in less than 10 hours via the Swift and tunnel
services, so what are you waiting for? Get planning.
For more details of where to shop in the
channel ports go to www.winerepublic.com.
Where to Shop?
A shopping centre near the port in the centre of Cherbourg hosts a Carreforre
supermarket, which vies with Leclerc for perhaps the best wine department of any
of the French supermarkets. In the same centre you’ll find The Wine and Beer
Company (www.winebeer.co.uk)
owned by Majestic Wine Warehouses and hence stocked with recognisable wines at
very unrecognisable prices plus a chance to taste several wines and staff who
speak English. Price tickets are in sterling with a smaller Euro equivalent
notice, which tells you about the customer base. Close by is the Normandie Wine
Warehouse (www.normandiewine.com)
which seemed to have a good selection of wines plus a chance to taste before
buying. On the edge of town there’s a Lidl with prices such and also on the
edge of town is an Auchan supermarket that stocks many more New World wines than
branches further inland. If you venture no further than the old town you’ll
find Cave Dubigny, Parking Notre Dame,
a warehouse style operation with some great wines and spirits and a few other
small specialists such as Cave du Roy, 47 rue Tour Carrée,
who would be the place to go in search of something really special.
At
Calais in the giant Cité Europe shopping centre there’s a Tesco and a
Carreforre. It’s big I got separated from my wife and kids! There’s also an
Oddbins which is more of a Nicolas store, as the name has just changed
and they share an owner. There’s also a Oddbins store (franchised I was told) at Parc la Francaise Avenue Charles de Gaulle,
Coquelles.
Find
your way to the industrial zone called ZA
Marcel Doret and
you’ll find a cluster of booze outles. There’s a Majestic, the legendary
Eastenders (open 24hrs), pile ‘em high warehouse and the very civilised and
very French Perardel
Wine Market. There’s
also a Saisbury’s at Centre Commercial Auchan, Route de Boulogne
A little further inland I was told by a member
of staff at Oddbins that Les Halles de Quercamps, 15, rue des Fiefs. 62380.
Quercamps was excellent! Google searches will reveal a few others but I didn’t
get to them and can’t comment. At any rate you shouldn’t go thirsty.
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